


Adoration Issues

by wynnebat



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Getting Together, POV Original Character, Romance, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-10-02
Updated: 2008-10-02
Packaged: 2018-04-17 15:28:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4671749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wynnebat/pseuds/wynnebat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been four years since Arisu last stepped foot in Konoha, but finally, she's home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Adoration Issues

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a dinosaur, though a very beloved one. I wrote it back in 2008 and posted it on the Lunaescence and Freedom of Speech archives. Since then, it's been sitting on various hard drives until I finally decided to brush it up a bit and post it. 
> 
> Warning for a past mostly platonic teacher & student relationship between the pairing, past murder/minor character death.

Arisu Nishimura ambled down Konoha's main street with no particular destination in mind, staring curiously at all the new stores that had popped up since she'd last been in Konoha four years ago. The Hokage wasn't accepting visitors today (something about a meeting, but his secretary revealed that he'd left the office with his Icha Icha collection) and she needed a place to stay for the night. Hopefully she'd come across a cheap motel for the night, but since she hadn't seen one yet, Arisu thought her chances were negligible at best.

She turned right, then left, aimlessly turning this way and that until she was broken out of her dream-like state by a kid bumping into her knees.

"Yeah, I'm fine, don't mind me," she muttered as the kid ran off without apologizing. She noticed he'd dropped something and picked it up; it was a decorated kunai, the kind that were expensive and not usually used by children. "Oi!" she called after the kid. "You dropped your kunai!" Or your father's kunai, she mentally amended, twirling it in her fingers. Good metal, good balance. Definitely not a child's plaything.

Farther behind her, but still in her vision, she could hear the brat yelling, "Happy Birthday!" to a short redhead with a birthday cap. They were laughing and giggling, not at all bothered by the annoyed glances a few people were sending toward them. Arisu couldn't help smiling at their youth. Soon, the kid in question was looking around at the ground in panic, and shot a grin at Arisu as she held the kunai out for him.

"Don't do anything stupid with it," she told him, glancing at the sharp point.

"I'm not a little kid," he replied. "I'm an _academy student_." And then, his manners finally catching up to his mouth, he added, "Thank you!"

With an utterly adorable annoyed pout, he ran off to join his friends. Arisu shook her head, feeling amused despite herself. The kid reminded her of the daimyo's children; after nearly four years of being one of their father's guards, she regarded them almost like an extended family of bratty younger siblings. Still, she'd missed Konoha enough to eventually leave them, accepting a post back home.

Konoha was beautiful, covered entirely in memories. There was the first ramen stand she'd ever visited; there was the dry cleaner's she went to once, sobbing over not being able to get the blood of the first person she'd ever killed out of her clothes; there was the home of her former best friend; there was the spot underneath a cherry blossom tree where she'd first kissed Kakashi. It had been her first kiss—and he'd been her first everything: her first crush, her first love, the first man to make her want to never leave. He'd also been her first mentor after she'd graduated from the academy, teaching her as a favor to her parents in between hectic ANBU missions, and the first person to lean back from her kiss and tell her no.

Her feet brought her to one of the farthest training fields, for old times' sake. It was already occupied, but she didn't mind. Training could wait a day, until she got used to being in a city instead of a daimyo's compound.

Arisu leaned against a nearby tree, simply watching three kids argue. They were yelling so loudly that people on the other side of the village could probably hear, not that the kids seemed to realize that. The kid with blond hair seemed to be trying to show something by flailing his arms around and a pink-haired girl was trying unsuccessfully to bash his head in. Had she ever been so young, so carefree? Arisu didn't doubt it, but it was hard to imagine.

After a couple minutes, the girl with pink hair looked over at Arisu and whispered something to the boy with blond hair. All three of them then walked toward her, dragging the black haired guy along with them.

They stopped a few feet away from her. "Hey!" the blonde kid said.

"Hello," she answered, idly cataloguing his weapons. He didn't wear nearly enough, she decided. And then she wondered exactly what they were doing at this specific training ground; four years ago, only one person had been evil enough to consistently drag her all the way out here. "Do you know where I can find someone named Hatake Kakashi? He's a Jonin. Has silver hair and wears a headband over one eye?"

The looked at each other. The girl and the blonde boy grinned. "Why do you need to find Kakashi-sensei?"

So they were his students. Arisu could only hope they weren't too hard on Kakashi. She shrugged in answer. "Thought I'd make a visit. D'you where I can find him?"

Judging by their identical smirks, the kids thought there was something between her and their sensei. Arisu just rolled her eyes.

"He should be here soon," the raven haired kid replied. It was the first time he'd said something to her. At least this kid wasn't grinning like a madman, though she could tell he was as curious as the other two. He wasn't nearly as good at hiding his emotions as Kakashi.

There was a loud popping noise and a lot of smoke. Arisu knew automatically it would be Kakashi—the special effects were his over-the-top style—but her fingers still twitched toward her weapons pouch. Judging by his wide eye, he hadn't heard she was coming back. Arisu smirked at her petty one-upmanship game. She'd only surprised him a couple times in her life—and one of those had been that wonderful, short kiss—so this was a moment to be savored.

Kakashi looked the same. Sure, his hair was longer and darker, he was taller and leaner, and he'd filled out into a well-muscled adult from the gangly too-tall teenager she remembered. But his clothes were practically identical to his old ones, and nothing major had changed since she'd seen him last. Probably not even his desire to date her, she thought with a rueful smile.

Kakashi raised a hand and gave a small wave and Arisu felt like a teenager all over again. She could almost imagine herself in cute little side pigtails, staring up at Kakashi. Smiling uncharacteristically wide, she ran over to him. It didn't matter that she was already almost twenty-three. It didn't matter that he was only twenty-two. She gave him a huge hug and leaned her head into his chest.

"Welcome back, kid. Arisu," he murmured, saying his endearing term only out of habit. She wasn't a kid any more, nor did she look anything like one.

"It's good to be home," she replied.

It felt too soon when she pulled away from Kakashi. Of course, the kids weren't bothering to get some decency and hide their staring. She doubted they had taken their eyes off of her and Kakashi since the embrace began. But it didn't matter.

"How have you been, sensei?"

"Stop calling me that, kid. It makes me feel old," he said, patting the top of her head.

"Stop calling me kid and I'll stop calling you sensei. Deal?" She asked hopefully. Maybe some things had changed over a span of four years. Maybe he was a little less stubborn.

"No. You're a good three years younger than me."

"Iruka's my age! You don't call him kid."

"That's because he wasn't my student."

"So you don't call him kid just because he wasn't your student?"

He shook his head and laughed. "You're impossible."

"I won't even argue."

Someone whispered something along the lines of, "Say, are we gonna be this attached to Kakashi-sensei when we get older?" Arisu heard an "I hope not" from another kid.

"So you have a team? As in, you actually passed one?" Arisu asked. Kakashi rolled his eye.

Arisu looked over at the kids again. They straightened up and looked up at the sky, faking indifference. They certainly hadn't been intently overhearing a conversation.

"Yes," Kakashi muttered. "Sakura Haruno," he said, nodding his chin toward the girl.

While he read off the other two's names, she took the time to study his face. It had changed a lot, but at the same time none at all. He still wore a mask over much of his face, hiding his lips and nose. It came up to his left Sharingan eye, and then his forehead protector took over the task of hiding his face. Only his right eye was left visible. This eye didn't have the Sharingan, but if you really looked closely, you would see his vast knowledge of battle and his numerous years of experience. He had fought, he had lost, he had won.

Kakashi's face had become so much more masculine, from his late teens to his early twenties to his middle twenties. He was handsome; anyone could tell. It was a surprise to Arisu that he didn't have a girl hanging off his arm at the very moment.

But maybe it wasn't that much of a surprise. He wasn't strikingly handsome, as he never took off his mask. She herself had never seen his face, and she'd known him for seven long years. He was a great, wonderful person. You knew it a soon as you met him. He was just simply Kakashi.

Kakashi was also less stressed, and it showed on his face. He used to have slight creases of worry and disapproval; now he was relaxed. Her former teacher seemed to be more easygoing with his new students than with her.

She'd admired his face for too long. He waved a hand in front of her face. "Ari, kid. Spacing out?"

"Just admiring your face," she said, easily, smiling as Kakashi became a bit flustered.

Kakashi cleared his throat. "Right, kids. Your training for today is over."

His students gaped at him.

"What do you mean our training's over?" yelled the blond one, whose name Arisu hadn't caught.

"We haven't started yet, Kakashi-sensei!"

"Hn. You're a horrible teacher, sensei."

Kakashi grinned under his mask and waved them off. "Now, now. It's already one in the afternoon. It's too late to train. Old men like me need naps at this time."

Arisu laughed into her hand as Kakashi's students glared at him. If glares could kill, her old sensei would already be six feet under. "How did you ever get a team if you train like _that_?"

"I train them well. Occasionally, anyway."

Kakashi watched his students as they left, a faint smile on his lips. When they were out of sight, he turned toward her, a similar smile on his lips, but fuller, deeper. They'd known each other for so long; Arisu would always think of him as her friend, even if he never returned her feelings, and she knew he would, too. There were some bonds you could never break, even if one half of the bond left for four years.

"You grew up," Kakashi said, a little wistfully.

"You could've been there to see it," Arisu reminded him, just in case he'd forgotten.

After that kiss… After he'd told her she was too young, that he was her teacher, that it was wrong, he'd left for a hastily planned mission, then took another one back to back. When he finally returned, Kakashi made no mention of what had happened between them, yet their relationship had become forever strained. He'd still been a wonderful teacher, but their friendship never quite resumed its course, no matter how much she'd tried. And then she'd left to lands unknown, because it was easier than dealing with the storm inside her heart.

"Don't I know it," Kakashi agreed. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry, Arisu. I should've handled it better."

"I should've waited," Arisu said. She'd never apologize for her feelings, but that kiss—it hadn't been a good idea from the start. Kakashi had been her mentor, the man in charge of making her into a worthwhile ninja; no amount of love could've changed their balance of power. But in the last four years, she'd thought about his words that day, and never once had Kakashi said he didn't feel the same way. Clutching her strength to her heart, Arisu took a step closer. "I'm home for good, this time," she said, simply. "I know we never made any promises, but I still love you. It's been years; I can live without you. I don't need you, not as my sensei, my commander—but I want you, so much, Kakashi."

"Arisu—" Kakashi began, fumbling, and for a moment she feared that she'd read him completely wrong. "There is very little I'd like more than to be with you, now that I finally can. If you'll have me, I'll be the happiest man alive."

And this time, kissing Kakashi felt like finally coming home.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Complete; no sequel planned.


End file.
